Sunday, 2 November 2008

I must admit, I was completely stumped as to what to do for my Hween costume this year. After the Hard Hat last year, Pac-Man the year before, and Sinistar a couple of years before that, I wanted to make a costume that was a little less… intensive. But, as I said, I was stumped. Carrie & I batted some ideas around, and I thought Bomberman would be cool ’cause I could make a big plush bomb to throw around. But I couldn’t figure out how to easily do that gigantic head of his. Then suddenly Carrie came up with the idea that I should be my own Mii, and just like that my problem was solved! The Mii of me on my Wii looks an awful lot like me. But how to make a costume out of that as simply as possible? Thankfully, there is an online tool where you can make your own Miis: the Mii Creator. All I had to do was select all the right parts and then fudge them around until the Mii on the screen looked the same as the Mii on the Wii. I took a screen capture and brought it into Photoshop so I could fix the hairline. The online Mii Creator is a little bit too literal about the thumbnails of the hairstyles looking exactly like the hairstyles; the one I use on the Wii looked different than the same style online. But I fixed it, then printed it out on an 8.5″ × 11quot; piece of glossy photo paper, then carefully cut it out. I cut out a piece of cardboard that was slightly smaller than the Mii, and poked two holes in it at about ear-level. I strung a comfortable organza ribbon through the holes, then mounted the piece of cardboard on the back of the photo paper, voila: I didn’t make any eyeholes (I didn’t want to ruin the aesthetic), so I would have to rely on my peripheral vision to move around, but that was fine; many of my costumes have had no vision whatsoever. I wasn’t quite done yet, though. If you look at that image of the Mii Creator up there, you’ll notice something about the Mii’s hands. Miis don’t really have hands. They just have spheres on the ends of their arms. I wanted my costume to be as authentic as possible, so I decided to make a couple of sphere fists for myself. But how? By sewing, of course! I had no idea how to sew a ball, but thankfully we’re well into the 21st century now and pretty much all how-to knowledge is somewhere on teh intarwebz. A quick search came up with this reasonable set of instructions on how to make a plush ball. I went and bought a long-sleeved purple T-shirt (it was a UW shirt that I just turned inside-out) and some cheap fabric that was a close-enough color. I cut out 12 foot-ball-shaped pieces of the purple fabric. I took ’em over to mum’s house and used her sewing machine to sow them together in sets of three, so that I had six hemispheres. I then sewed the hemispheres together into two spheres, leaving about a three-inch gap in them so that I could insert my hand. Then I turned the shirt’s sleeves inside-out (well, right-side-out in this case because I wanted the shirt to end up being inside-out) and sewed the spheres to them like this: Once both spheres were sewn on, I turned the shirt right-side-out (inside-out in this case) and then stuffed the spheres full of poly-fill so that they’d maintain their shape. Then all I had to do was put on the shirt halfway, tie on the mask, and then slip my hands into the spheres and my costume was complete! I am my own Mii! And it was comparatively easier than the costumes I did the last couple of years. Then if you’re lucky you’ll get to hang out with a hottie like Tia, whose costume was her own character from Rock Band: Everyone seemed to love me being my Mii quite a lot. I liked it quite a lot as well, though there were two problems with the costume:

I could only see via peripheral vision

I had no usable hands

My “Batmen of Many Variations” jack-o-lanterns were also a hit, though not as popular as my Pac-Man punkins (though more popular than my Space Invaders punkins). Here are some photos of my 2008 punkins all lit up and purdy: On Hween night we did our annual tradition where I make a metric tonne of Reuben sammitches and Carrie makes a delicious Russian potato soup with green beans, sauerkraut, and dill. Hope everyone else’s Hween was equally as enjoyable as mine, if not moreso.

Saturday, 1 November 2008

Link of the Month: Woot!
Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap. They sell one item per day until it is sold out or until 11:59pm central time when it is replaced. A new product is released every morning at 12am central time, seven days a week. You can find some insanely cool things for insanely cheap prices.

DVD of the Month: Pushing Daisies – The Complete First Season The premise: The protagonist can bring anybody or anything dead back to life with a touch. If he touches it again EVER, then it dies again forever. If he doesn’t touch it again within 60 seconds, though, something of equivalent life value nearby will spontaneously drop dead. A private detective learns this and uses the protagonist to solve murders by having him touch the victims and asking what happened, then touching them again before the 60 seconds elapse. Beyond the premise, though, Pushing Daisies is an absolutely delightful, whimsical, colorful fantasy mixed with romantic comedy and good old-fashioned detective capers. It is an absolute delight and like nothing I’ve ever before seen on TV. A cheery, quirky, Tim Burton-esque romp with quick, snappy dialogue and not a single boring/standard character or situation.

Album of the Month: Three Ninjas: Live at Studio 7
Aaaah. Good times. Good times. 6 songs performed with special guest Geoff Gibbs (of the Crazy Boy Floyds) on bass live in front of an actual, real-life audience. Includes an improvised “Rap Fight,” the never-before-heard “Going Gay For House” and an astonishing “Beluga Calf” medley! Best of all, this album is a FREE DOWNLOAD over at Three Ninja’s blog, jeffthefish.com